Fall Enrichment Activity Ideas for Children
Autumnal Learning Opportunities for September, October, and November
Sep 4, 2008
As breezes blow cooler and the trees blaze with fiery colors, spend some quality time with your children doing some organized autumnal activites.
September
Just yesterday you were slathering sunscreen on wriggly arms and shaking sand out of shoes. But with the flick of a calendar page it's September, and already you can feel the days darkening sooner and see the tips of leaves turning gold and orange. Now, you could wait until the world is buried in crinkling piles of crimson, amber, and brown to start enjoying the leaves, but why not "jump" in even earlier by taking a nature walk and working on some leaf activities?
Toward the middle of the month, keep an eye out for the luminous Harvest Moon, or the full moon that rises closest to the time of the autumnal equinox (the short time when days and nights are of almost equal length before winter sets in and nights become longer than days). In 2008, you can observe the Harvest Moon beginning on the morning of September 15th. Try a Harvest Moon activity and bundle the kids up to sit outside some night on or soon after this date to observe the moon.
October
As the name of the Harvest Moon indicates, this is the season to harvest ripening crops. Go ahead and take advantage of nature's abundance. Try out a kind of squash you've never eaten before. Or just stock up on old favorites, like apples or pumpkins. After all, October is National Apple Month.
Visit a pumpkin farm and/or an apple orchard and collect pumpkins and apples directly from patches and trees. If you're not near farms or orchards, or just to prepare your children before your field trip, visit these places from home first through pumpkin farm-themed and apple orchard-themed lessons.
November
Now that your pantry is overflowing with food, use your collection of fall foods to make succulent harvest-themed meals...
- For an autumnal breakfast, serve pumpkin pancakes and pumpkin waffles with maple syrup, cinnamon apple syrup, and apple butter.
- For autumnal hors d'oeuvres, serve toasted sunflower seeds, toasted pumpkin seeds, fried pumpkin flowers, deep-fried pumpkin chips, and dried apple rings.
- Make fresh applesauce to use as an ingredient in apple muffins and applesauce cakes.
- Make pumpkin soup and serve it from a pumpkin shell tureen in little pumpkin shell bowls.
- Spread freshly baked pumpkin breads, pumpkin cornbread, and pumpkin rolls with apple jelly and pumpkin butter.
- Drink apple cider and apple juice.
- For autumnal desserts, serve pumpkin cookies (flavored with maple syrup and raisins), pumpkin pies, pumpkin ice cream pies, squash pies, apple pies, apple fritters, and candied and caramel apples.
Use fall materials collected from your nature walks to dress your table in autumnal splendor. Be sure to craft a lovely cornucopia centerpiece.
Pick and choose the activities that most appeal to your children's interests and that match whichever resources (gorgeous fall foliage, nearby farms and orchards, well-stocked Whole Foods Market stores) are available in your area. Whatever you do, take lots of pictures and save them in a scrapbook (or box!) with some notes written by you and your children recording what you have shared and learned together this fall season.
